From Russia with love — of knowledge.
A Long Island student who came to Mastic Beach as a child while knowing very little of the country was nominated as a presidential scholar this month — and her adoration of learning and heavy metal radiates through the halls of her school.
“When I was seven years old, I was sipping tea in my kitchen, and mom came in and said, ‘Why haven’t you packed? We’re moving to America,” William Floyd High School senior Victoria Basharina, originally of Yekaterinburg near the Ural Mountains, told The Post.
“Just like that, we came here in 2014,” said the 18-year-old, who came to the US with her mom and brother after her parents divorced.
“It was strange,” she recalled. “I didn’t speak English. The house was big and empty and pretty run down at the time we bought it.”
Naturally, things were incredibly overwhelming for her as a confused first-grader who couldn’t even spell her name in English.
It would be a long struggle to where she is today, as a top student with a 100.4 grade point average who now tutors others in English.
“Originally, I hated school, if you can believe it. I would get so bored,” she said.
“But I remember moving here and thinking, ‘alright, everyone is pretty stressed, and this is scary, but let me try to make the most of this.’”
So, in the early days, she learned the bare bones of the second language and would approach other kids, extending her arm and saying, “my name Victoria, I don’t speak English good, you friend.”
In middle school, she fancied a passion for heavy rock bands like Avenged Sevenfold and met some of her closest friends through some headbanging.
“I’d say it’s probably become my favorite genre…it caused such a great chain reaction in my life.”
A Russian doll
As she assimilated to the South Shore of LI and said dasvidaniya to any bad tidings, Basharina’s relentless quest for knowledge flourished.
“In ninth grade, I remember one of our first meetings, her poring over the course catalog, ‘I want to do that. I want to do this. How do I get to take this?’” Basharina’s guidance counselor, Ashley Seibert, said.
“I was like, ‘Wow, she’s she’s really eager,’” she added, praising Basharina’s contagious enthusiasm.
Along with having a course load of advanced placement and honors, Basharina is involved in the National Honor Society, a science honor society, the student government, a robotics club and an animatronic club.
“I want to learn something new every day, and it kind of happens on its own,” said Basharina, who watches TED Talks for fun.
“Even when I procrastinate on my school work, I’m looking up facts on another subject . . .The only time I’m not learning something new is when I’m sleeping or in the shower,” the teen added.
When Basharina recently received her formal letter from The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, which only 25 New Yorkers qualify for a year, she couldn’t believe it — literally.
“I thought it was a type of scam and almost threw it out…after about a week of it lying around, I sent it to [Seibert],” she recalled. “I emailed her saying, ‘Get a load of this baloney,’ and she responded, ‘Oh my God!’”
Now, Basharina, who is also waiting to hear back from some Ivy League colleges for neuroscience, will find out in June whether she is among the nation’s best students in the academic competition.
No matter what, though, she is more than fulfilled with how her young life has turned out.
“I think I learned to have fun through everything — and fun is just being me,” Basharina said. “And now, everywhere is home to me, here, or when I see my family in Russia, or anywhere I can learn.”
